New England, Middle States in 4.5 Senior Nationals women's final

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. - After two incredible days of high-caliber tennis, the men’s semifinals at the USTA League 4.5 Senior National Championships are scheduled to be played on Sunday at 7:30 a.m. (PDT) while the women's final was set with New England and Middle States to meet for the title.

In the women’s semifinals on Saturday afternoon, the New England Section swept the Eastern Section, 3-0 and the Middle States Section blanked the Southern Section, 3-0. New England will face the Middle States Section in the women’s final at 7:30 a.m. (PDT) Sunday.

The Southern California Section men’s team from Fountain Valley, Calif. will play the New England Section men’s team from Boston in one semifinal. The other men’s semifinal will be contested between the Midwest Section men’s team from Cleveland, Ohio and the Northern California Section men’s team from Danville, Calif.

Each of the men’s semifinalists advanced to the final four by winning their respective flight matches on Friday and Saturday.

The Midwest Section men’s team needed to defeat the Texas Section men’s team in the last match in Flight 6 in order to qualify for the semifinals. Both teams entered the head-to-head encounter with 2-0 records.

What took place was a highly-competitive match that was worthy of a championship final. After splitting the No.1 and No. 2 doubles matches, the No. 3 doubles match would determine which team would advance to the semifinals.

Despite temperatures in the 90s, Texas team members Tim Marco, Tom Caine, Rich Frey and James Littman of the Midwest Section team played an incredible match that neither team will forget any time soon.

Frey and Littman clinched the Midwest Section team victory and a spot in the semifinals as they defeated Marco and Caine 7-6, 7-6 in two hours and 31 minutes.

"It was unbelievably close. It was just tremendous play. Two of the three courts were nip and tuck. One was straight sets for Texas and we won a match tiebreaker on (another) court," said team captain Bob Flacks, a 60-year-old resident of Solon, Ohio.

"We won another match 7-6, 7-6 after having many opportunities. Texas kept fighting back. We ended up winning the last point," Flack added.

"Our expectations were very high. We knew every match was going to be very tough and close," he said. "Our mentality was to be ready to have a great time and battle through each match."

The men’s final will take place at approximately 10 a.m. (PDT) Sunday.